The work location was a few miles south of Tempelhof; actually very close to the Berlin Wall. It was built on a hill, which was actually a pile of rubble cleared out from the city center after World War II. Here is an early photograph of the site, known as Marienfelde. Both of the hills here are piles of rubble.
Our jobs there were described as doing research into electromagnetic phenomena. We had shuttle buses that we rode from the housing areas to work, although you could commute via subway. If you caught a taxi, you could get there by saying you wanted to go to the "US Weather Station" or "US Radar Station" in Marienfelde, and the driver would reliably deposit you at the front gate. I guess the German word was "radarstutzpunkt." This second photo is from the early '80's, which was when I was there.
For most of my time at Marienfelde, I worked shifts. Looking back, it was a pretty brutal schedule of 12 on and 3 off - 4 swings (4pm to midnight), 24 hours off, 4 mids (midnight to 8am), 24 hours off, and the four days (8am to 4pm), and 72 hours off.
We would find ways to trick our bodies into the time changes - usually we'd find a place for an "after swings" party so that we could stay up until the morning, and then my routine for the mids-days change was to take a nap for a couple of hours and then go hang out at the Irish Pub downtown all day. My friends, I liked to call them "Guinness" and "Tullamore Dew," would often join me there, along with Stan, Henry, and a number of others.
Here is another photo of the site a few years later, late '80's. My sister and brother-in-law got to Berlin during this era, and if they went to Marienfelde, this is what it would have looked like. I don't know why these colorful flags are in the photo - they remind me of the Maryland flag. I figure this has something to do with the new IBM plant that opened across the street during those days.
Here is the last image I have, someone's photograph of the City, looking north. When the Wall came down and German Reunionification was completed, the need for electromagnetic research went away, along with the need for this building.
Today, there's not even a trace of the parking lots that were there - it's part of a park that has been made out of the old hill! The site is visible on Google Earth - a search for Berlin Marienfelde will show it. In the skyline photograph, you can just see the white radar tower on Tempelhof Airport, towards the center right edge of the photo.
The entry on Tempelhof is at:
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